Summary

Understanding organic management practices is a key in developing sustainable organic farming systems. We report the results of four different organic fertilization strategies in a field trial on yields, soil quality and economic performance. We found highest yields and economic performance in two direct plant feeding strategies. One of these strategies, a newly developed strategy based on biowaste compost (GFT) and an additional fertilizer performed well in terms of yields but looks also very promising in terms of soil quality and biodiversity. The economic perspective of this strategy renders it promising in regions with little animal manures.

The final version of this paper is published in: Niggli, Urs; Leifert, Carlo; Alföldi, Thomas; Lück, Lorna and Willer, Helga, Eds. (2007) Improving Sustainability in Organic and Low Input Food Production Systems. Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress of the European Integrated Project Quality Low Input Food (QLIF). University of Hohenheim, Germany, March 20 – 23, 2007. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, CH-Frick. http://orgprints.org/10417/ Printed copies may be ordered from the FiBL Shop at www.shop.fibl.org.